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The decline in worldwide travel book sales has had a "considerable impact" on Lonely Planet, its parent BBC Worldwide (BBCW) has reported. Lonely Planet's sales were £43m in the year to end-March 2009, with the travel publisher's overall loss reported to be £9.6m. But BBCW said it had no plans to scale-back its publishing programme, or reduce investment.
BBC Worldwide has not provided full-year figures for Lonely Planet's previous financial year, during which it was acquired by BBC Worldwide. In the six months following the acquisition in October 2007 it had sales of £23.1m, and made a £2.1m loss. It now sits within BBCW's Global Brands unit, along with Doctor Who and Top Gear.
BBCW said profits at Lonely Planet were "lower owing to investment in digital areas of the business, plus the impact of the economic downturn", with the travel guide market down 18.1% in the UK, Australia and the US, according to Nielsen Bookscan. It reported that publishing and licensing profits in 2008/09 fell to £0.3m compared with £4.4m for the six months under BBC Worldwide ownership in 2007/08.
BBCW said "significant investment" in digital activities helped increase digital revenues to £4.9m (£2.3m 2007/08), but it also increased losses to £3.6m (£3.2m 2007/08). This led to a trading loss of £3.3m, before amortisation of £3.9m and "brand management" costs of £2.4m.
Marcus Arthur, managing director of global brands at BBC Worldwide, said that despite the increased losses its forward publishing programme would not be curbed and also added that he did not "anticipate any other structural changes within the business". The company cut 50 staff from its offices in the UK, Australia and the US earlier this year, including six in the UK.
Arthur said it had "invested heavily" in Lonely Planet, and would continue to do so as part of a five-year plan. "We're only in year two and what you'll see is I have invested really really heavily in digital and put an awful lot of emphasis into mobile." Arthur added: "We have also invested extensively in our book catalogue. We've re-launched Hawaii [travel guide], done a new 'Trip' series for America and rolled out Encounters. We are absolutely certain the book side has got growth."
He added however that next year BBC Worldwide would again experience a loss with Lonely Planet. "Brave people invest in times of recession," Arthur said.
BBCW said: "In its first full year under BBC Worldwide control, Lonely Planet has continued its transformation from a travel book business to a diversified provider of travel information."